This game marked the international
debut of Allan Clarke, who went on to win nineteen caps. He also scored the game's
only goal, from the penalty spot, and went on to net ten times for England.
Wearing England shirts for the last
time were Jack Charlton, who won his 35th cap, and Jeff Astle, for whom it
was his fifth.

Captain

Bobby Moore was the captain in
this shirt's only outing.

England designated this special lightweight
all-blue strip as one of their alternate colours for the World Cup 1970 final
tournament. They wore it once, in the 1-0 victory
against Czechoslovakia.

"So,
it's an unfamiliar looking England and in more ways than one. Because the Czechs
also wear an all-white strip and won the toss for colours, it is England who
must change. Now it's light blue for England, a sort of pastel-hued version of
their usual outfit, with the same big red numbers on the back. Still England,
but not quite the same." - Back Home, England and the 1970 World Cup: Jeff Dawson, p226.

Because England wore
this kit against the Czechs, who wore all white, it was difficult in the
bright sunshine to distinguish the two teams on black-and-white television,
which is what most viewers had at the time. Consequently, England
discarded the blue and switched to
red for the quarter-final against West
Germany. Ironically, as the Germans wore black shorts, it would have been easier
to distinguish the teams than it was for the Czech game, had England again
appeared in all blue.

The shirt in
the photo top left, was worn by Jeff Astle on his last appearance for England.
It appears here by kind permission of the National Football Shirt Collection (England
Match Shirts), also part of
the Neville Evans Collection (curator Simon Shakeshaft).

Second shirt
along (plus the close-up of the emblem) was worn by Alan Ball. This is part of
Richard Clarke's Morrell Collection.

Matches in Which England Wore the
1970 World Cup all-light-blue Uniform